Media - Digital or Physical?

[TyrannicalFascist]

So let me start by saying that I'm staying physical with video games for many, many reasons, with a big one being that people make awesome covers for their cases.  Besides, playing Super Mario World on the Wii U isn't quite the same feel as the SNES, not to mention a lot of old games aren't available digitally or able to sync cross-platform in the same way you can with, say, Kindle or Audible. And I've played many classic games by emulation, which should be more convenient, but it just doesn't feel right. Plus I've lost access to digital games I've bought before...

But beyond games, I'm kind of all over the place. As a Star Wars fan, I've bought a lot of the old Expanded Universe media. I mainly bought audiobooks on cassette tape or CD for novels, with the occasional paperback for an odd young reader novel or book that didn't get an audiobook. Over the years though, I've found I almost never get a tape or CD out to listen to the audiobooks when I can just listen to an m4b file. So I've ended up buying audiobooks digitally now, and I've been converting the rest I had and likely will sell most of them so I stay all-digital for audiobooks both past and future.

For comics, I always preferred to wait for collections rather than get single issues. I currently have most of the Dark Horse Star Wars Omnibus collections, plus a good chunk of the Trade Paperbacks that were not collected in them. The only new Marvel Star Wars releases I've picked up so far are 2 of the Epic Collections (which collect Dark Horse comics in chronological order), which I think make a great compliment (and eventual replacement) to the DH Omnibuses. But now with all the new canon books coming out and the impending collections of Marvel's new canon series, I'm starting to think about possibly going to all digital releases from now on. On top of that, a lot of the books and comics I already own physically are also available digitally at pretty good prices, so I can't help thinking maybe I could sell my physical copies and use the money to get the digital versions...

I'm finding a lot of these things take up a ton of space in my house, and I want to be more selective about what kinds of media I truly care about owning physically. Unlike my games, I rarely pull some of them off the shelf for a re-read - sometimes with comics, but very rarely with books. Sure, a book can have a nice cover too, but the inside is almost entirely pages and pages of text, so I'm not so attached to owning them physically as I am with games.

One big factor for me though is how good the digital service is. I like using iTunes to buy my music and audiobooks and can easily sync it to my iPod or keep them on my PC. On the other hand, I still own a lot of Blu Rays and DVDs (not to mention some VHS and LaserDisc), and I see the Ultraviolet copies only as a nice bonus. VUDU is okay in a pinch, and I do like their $1-2 digital conversion service, but I just find it and most other similar services klunky and not visually appealing. Plus I like the cover art and usually watch the bonus features, so I won't be going digital-only any time soon there.

So I'm kind of split on what to do with books and comics. I do like the convenience of being able to access all my potential Kindle books from anywhere on pretty much every device I own. I've bought some books for Amazon Kindle before and I like it, but I've never bought a digital comic before.

How do you guys prefer to get your various media types these days? Music, Movies, Books, Comics, etc. Especially in terms of comics, I know very little about the pros and cons and what services everyone uses. Does anyone buy comics digitally through Amazon? Are there any problems or risks with digital that you worry about, like that they may be removed in the future? Has anyone gone digital and regretted it?

[Quazimoto]

I'm physical media all the way.  I do find myself listening to music digitally more often than off a CD, but I still keep the physical discs.

That said, all the music, movies, and books take up a LOT of space.  Being that I plan on living in a tiny house one day, I've been slowly working on my music and movie collections, getting rid of what I can and keeping only the ones that are most important to me.  I used to have over 1,500 DVDs and more than 1,000 CDs.  Not quite done eliminating things just yet, but I'm already down to about 375 DVDs and 350 CDs.  It actually feels great to have a smaller collection of the music and movies that are most important to me.

Books will be hard.  I've got about 400 vintage hardcover novels (mostly westerns and romances) and I do need to whittle that down a bit.  I'm thinking if I can get to about 250ish it won't take too much space.  I'd never go digital on books.  Could handle it with music, movies, and games if I had to for whatever reason.  But being able to hold the book and smell the paper and ink is part of the charm of books for me.  Of course, that's more prevalent with older, hardcover books, so I can see why digital editions of newer things would appeal to people.

Games will be hard too.  I'll never get rid of all of them, but I'll definitely start getting rid of those that I don't anticipate ever needing or wanting to play again.

Thankfully, I've found a more streamlined storage solution for disc based media that allows me to keep all the artwork, but only uses about a third of the space, so I'll be able to keep more than I otherwise would using the original cases.

I can see the benefit of going digital with things, but it's just not for me.  I like being able to hold things in my hands and feel like I actually own something.  With digital media, one big hiccup in your computer and it's all gone.  Sure, you can back things up, but that is a huge hassle and time suck to transfer everything back and forth.

I don't think I'd ever advocate going all digital to someone.  But, for anyone dealing with space issues, I would definitely recommend lessoning the collection and keeping only the most important music, movies, games, and books.  It is really hard at first, but once you get over that hump and stop thinking about it as something you have to do, having a smaller, more meaningful collection is pretty awesome.

[Thom Grayson]

Digital 'feels' cheaper. Especially with books/comics. I've dabbled with ebooks and digital comics, and found them universally off-putting.

For games though, if it's digital-only (especially if its free with PS+!) I will usually take it and try it out anyway. Physical games look better on a shelf, but when playing them, whether there's a disc in the drive or not doesn't change the experience, unlike with books/comics where the physical form of the thing is essential to how it feels. If a physical version is available though, I will, 10 times out of 10, skip the digital version.

For music, I still like CDs, mainly because they strongly preserve the concept of an 'album'. Digital music encourages picking and choosing in a way that I think undermines albums.

Movies however, I find myself caring little the form it comes in. The experience isn't changed by it being on a disc or not, and I don't often rewatch movies, so having a physical 'thing' on a shelf doesn't make me like it more, unlike with games, where the collecting is almost as important as the playing.

[FritzWhite]

Space is a concern for me. I don't like having tons of stuff because I hate when things feel crowded and cluttered, so my feelings on collecting are mixed because I do enjoy having a collection of games. The way that I approach it is too be super picky with my pickups and I've gotten rid of a LOT of stuff I used to have. I have a very small comic book collection and did the same thing with thinning it down. I do have some comics I want to get rid of if you're interested in Batman, Superman, or X-Men. I have a few other characters and series as well.

I never thought I'd say this, but having played the Xbox One I can definitely see the positive of going digital and being able to access any game in the blink of an eye, but I like to trade some games when I'm done with them and prefer not to be stuck. I picked up State of Decay a few months back and hated it. I quickly flipped it and only lost a few bucks. I'll stay physical for now, but if everything were to eventually move to digital in future game console generations I'd probably just trade the Xbox for a PC and do it right.

[Madducky]

Oh physical, hands down; every time.

As it sits with digital download ANYTHING, you are left to the whims of our corporate overlords to change policy at the drop of a hat. I lost money when SONY shutdown the connect.com music store! I didn't get a chance to burn my ATRAC files into a music CD, now that money (and trust in the medium) are lost forever. It has also happened to walmart's original digital music downloads.

STEAM has a novel OEL (End Of Life) plan. They will allow you to save your bought games and turn off the DRM crap once and for all. That is a great idea!

As for the hear and now?I see only very minor convenience as the big selling point to going digital. If I did go digital on my WIIU, XBONE, and XBOX 360, ETC, it would cost me a fortune in external HDD's just to hold the stuff that I could get on-line. But in all fairness, when MS allowed external drives on the X360, I did grab a 4TB one just to help with the free TV shows, games for gold, for the XBONE, I had no choice whatsoever.

If digital goods were ever treated as purchases than licenses, that cannot be sold or traded, I would be much more tempted to go that route.

But for now, I'll download a demo, but stick with actually owning my games.

[Thom Grayson]

STEAM has a novel OEL (End Of Life) plan. They will allow you to save your bought games and turn off the DRM crap once and for all. That is a great idea!

If they are willing to turn it off later, one might ask why they don't just turn it off now.

I'm not 100% sure I trust Valve to follow through either. I don't trust them any more or less than any other digital storefront.

Then again, until they go out of business, we'll never know!

[Polygon]

Physical, all the way. I have digitized my music but I still OWN the physical copies. I don't like paying to rent my media. I want to enjoy it when I want and how I want.

[Megatron]

The only digital media I have truly embraced is music - and only slightly.  I still buy actual CDs, but I do like the option to download singles, since many artists I don't care for, but have 1 or 2 songs that I would buy.

[nbart711]

This generation I switched to 100% for digital for both PS4 and Xbox One. For the previous generation I purchased everything that I could as physical media. The main reason I stuck with physical media for PS3 and 360 is both these systems are reaching the end of their life. My assumption is both Microsoft and Sony at some point will turn off the online support for these consoles. When that happens who knows if we will still have access to purchased content. I think the reality is the industry (like many others) is moving towards digital distribution only, so my guess is longterm access to purchased content is going to be an issue that companies need to address in the near future. 

I used to purchase all my movies on physical media, but over the last couple years switched to using iTunes, and have sold my Blu ray discs. This is due mostly to space. With games and books I just don't have room for movies too. Blu-ray has better picture than iTunes, but the convenience of being able to easily move to tablet or laptop is more important to me.

Music I still purchase on CD. I have a Sonos system that allows me to stream FLAC files throughout the house. If iTunes would offer a higher quality option I would probably go digital, but since that seems unlikely to happen anytime soon, for the short term at least it looks like I will continue to purchase CDs. Unlike with games I don't really feel compelled to display the CDs, so once I copy them to the computer they just go into storage.

[Megatron]

TMy assumption is both Microsoft and Sony at some point will turn off the online support for these consoles. When that happens who knows if we will still have access to purchased content. I think the reality is the industry (like many others) is moving towards digital distribution only, so my guess is longterm access to purchased content is going to be an issue that companies need to address in the near future. 

My thoughts exactly, which is why I AVOID digital whenever possible.  How many games are now unplayable becasue they have been removed from service?

Look at PT - Konami decided to remove it.  Now it's gone.  Yes, it's still on my PS4, but there is no way to redownload if I accidentally delete it or anything happens to my console.
Last gen, X-Men, The Simpsons, TMNT, Turtles in Time, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Ultimate MVC 3 - all games I purcgased that have been removed from the store.  Luckily I have them on multiple consoles, but again, if anything happens there is no way to redownload once the licenses are up and the games are pulled. 
With physical copies you at least OWN the game.
With digital it just feels like a really long term rental. 

[wiggy]

I'm sure that, even when the online support for the PS3 and 360 disappears, the games purchased online will just become yours to do what you want with. If not, the backlash would likely be insane. Besides, what is there for Sony to lose should they give you all those games you got via PS+ once their support goes down?  Nothing financially.  If and when they do decide to shut down the servers, then it's because the service is no longer viable from a financial standpoint and there's not really any other way for them to continue to squeeze money from you once that's happened.

[sheep2001]

Or they could charge an 'unlock' fee, to squeeze one final drop of milk from the cash cow.

[nbart711]

That is my assumption wiggy. My issue is what happens if your hard drive goes later on? Once the server goes offline if you ever lose your downloads for some reason there will be no way to replace them.

[Arseen]

That is my assumption wiggy. My issue is what happens if your hard drive goes later on? Once the server goes offline if you ever lose your downloads for some reason there will be no way to replace them.

This.

[TDIRunner]

That is my assumption wiggy. My issue is what happens if your hard drive goes later on? Once the server goes offline if you ever lose your downloads for some reason there will be no way to replace them.

Hopefully by the time that happens, the PS3/Xbox 360 will be old enough that we will have some type of Everdrive/USB Mod that will allow us to play any game that we can download from the internet.